Poor Mans Thermal Optics/Night Vision Goggles?

[Stomper]

@nwwoodsman - 12 years ago i bought Gen 3 thin-film NV gear.

One of my intended uses was exactly what you are talking about: sneaking through bear and cat country in the dark.

I tried it several times: head mount, handheld, IR flashlights, etc.

I quit. I didn't like it or enjoy it.
It didn't serve the purpose well at all.
Slowed me down. Wasn't fun.

Now the only time I get that stuff out is to play around, show other people what real NV looks like, or to zero a PEQ on an AR.

Other comments from my experience:
Budget NV gear is useless.
Background: I'm a value-minded person. I like 1980's Tasco EuroClass scopes and Savage rifles and 1990's Pentax roof prism binocs and vintage manual focus camera lenses and other such stuff. High quality stuff at budget prices.
But I'll say this: I bought NV from Wilcox. I bought a Gen 2 and a Gen 3 tube. I immediately returned the Gen 2 and paid up for a 2nd Gen 3 tube, and I kind of gave him a hard time for not speaking the truth during the 1st purchase: Gen 3 thin-film tubes are spectacular and Gen 2 is really bad, a waste of money.

I've seen medium budget thermal gear in the fire service and in field monoculars. The resolution is bad. BUT, it would be better for your purpose than budget NV, because decent thermal gear will reliably show blobs of heat in an otherwise cold-black field of view. You may not be able to tell what the blob is, but at least you'll know it's there if you scan often enough.

I've never pursued military grade thermal gear because it is still way too expensive and also because of the lessons i learned with my NV gear.

2 cents.

I don't do dark walk-ins as often or as far as I used to.
But when I do, I wear a headlamp and carry my bow in my left hand and a pistol in my right.
My plan is go fast, never turn on the light, and whisper little prayers to God and John Browning.
If something bad happens, my plan is to not drop the gun.
After that, my plan is to not drop the gun, not drop the gun, shoot if necessary, do drop the bow, don't drop the gun, try to get the light on.
That's about the best i can do.
In 30 years, I've never been attacked in the dark, so I don't worry about it too much.
But as you know, it's still scary as hell sometimes.

Fatal flaw in your approach…. hit hunting partner in the knee, then outrun him, post hatse' like!

 

[Mygrainman]

The cheap amazon/chicom knock offs aren't worth it. Though, but yeah, if OP was going to put more money down to get something decent, most definitely.

For his use this might actually be an exception… these are actually pretty cool for the money. T-Rex Arms is very critical of "cheap" night vision devices, but Isaac was impressed with the capabilities for the price point. And that's when it was $600. If a guy can get a refurbished unit for half the price, it's something worthwhile to keep around as a backup, or as a way to record video at night.

 

[baker3gun]

@baker3gun Thanks for the straight answer. I have had 3 encounters over the past couple of years that rattled me a little bit. One was a pissed off bull elk screaming at me from the other opposite side of a slash pile I was setting up by. It was about 4:30am on the opening day of deer season. I couldn't tell if he wanted to mount me or stomp me and I didn't really want to find out either way. Had a cougar that could've pounced from above, but fortunately and as is the norm, he high tailed it in opposite direction.
It sounds like for the purposes, the price points had in mind and what's available, I may just stick with my head lamp, and pucker should any closer encounters occur.

You're welcome!

A shorter way to say it would have been this:
I do what you do, and I bought what you were asking about, and after a few attempts, I stopped using it because it just didn't fit the bill.
If you lived close, I'd loan it to you and bet ten dollars you'd come to the same conclusion.


For fun, here's a piece of my education:

For 20 years, 7 as a guide, 5 as an outfitter, I believed rutting elk were less dangerous than rutting deer.

I once watched a guide pull an angry bull right over the top of a client. Scared the client pretty bad. He froze. The bull shook his head and ran off. The client had muddy elk urine on his hat & jacket from the bull shaking his beard.
It was crazy to see that happen. I watched it thru binocs from 70 yards away.
We told the guy that he was in no danger, and we built him up, and we took him back out. He didn't shoot that year, but he came back next year and we got him a nice bull.

Last year I took my youngest kid big-game hunting for the first time. Archery elk. She was 14.
Mid season we helped a guy track a wounded elk into brush with dry creek beds.
We walked up on elk. I parked my daughter and stalked for 10 minutes, but it was only cows. I stood up and waved at them from about 30 yards. They took off.
I turned around and walked back towards my daughter. A couple of seconds later the wounded raghorn came blowing through the brush running after the cows. My daughter wheeled around and crouched and drew and the damn elk ran right at her and she fell back into the creekbed and screamed so loud and released the arrow at the thing jumping over her. I saw it fly off into the sky. It all happened really fast, scared the crap out of us. I never started to hook my release or draw my pistol, just watched a 3 second train wreck that was over before I recognized how bad it was.

So I'm with you!

I don't want no part of pissed off or bleeding animals in the daylight. Much less in the dark.

 

[308]

Sort of off topic, but it's pitch black here and Mrs308 and I just went for a rip out in the property with the ATV wearing the PVS-14 and while she could not see anything, I had a clearly illuminated view. It was awesome. 80 degrees at 11 ish PM

 

[American123]

Sort of off topic, but it's pitch black here and Mrs308 and I just went for a rip out in the property with the ATV wearing the PVS-14 and while she could not see anything, I had a clearly illuminated view. It was awesome. 80 degrees at 11 ish PM

I did that to my wife, but with a car, on a road, just to try it. She didn't appreciate the car moving at 35mph and her not being able to see anything in front of us. After about 30 seconds the "test" was over. But yeah. Fun!